The Top Entrepreneurs In Money, Marketing, Business And Life

Gaurav Dhillon. He’s an early investor in a company called SnapLogic. He joined in 2009, when he saw the potential of how companies integrate applications data and devices for digital business. He spearheaded SnapLogic’s rapid growth and overseas strategies, products, and operations. He’s previously the co-founder and CEO of Informatica. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Power of Habit What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove Favorite online tool? — Gmail How many hours of sleep do you get? — Close to 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish he knew more that opportunity knocks often”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:22 – Nathan introduces Gaurav to the show 02:04 – Gaurav and his co-founder had a $75K SBA grant when they built Informatica 02:25 – They have raised a total of $13.5M 02:57 – “11-12 years is a long time and it’s time to go” 03:32 – Gaurav is a company builder 03:47 – When Gaurav did an IPO, he sold some of his shares in a secondary public offering 03:

Garth Moulton. He’s invested and has advised a number of technology startups and was responsible for revenue growth for the channel for Pipl Inc.  After 11 years of sales experience in the Bay area, Mr. Moulton had the perfect startup journey with Jigsaw, which was drawn up from 2 guys with a whiteboard to a $175M exit, in 2010, to Salesforce. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Speed of Trust What CEO do you follow? – Tim Ferris Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That time is not boundless”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:18 – Nathan introduces Garth to the show 01:58 – Garth didn’t get depressed after Jigsaw’s exit 02:23 – Garth and Jim stayed at Salesforce for a year and a half, after the acquisition 02:43 – Pipl was running together with Jigsaw 02:48 – Garth met Pipl’s CEO during the early days of Jigsaw and they partnered together 03:03 – Pipl would drive traffic to Jigsaw 03:51 – Pipl was

Benjamin Cohen. He’s the CEO and leading T-REX, with a strong vision for the future of enterprise financial technology and its impact on marketing and making markets more transparent and efficient. He’s built the T-REX team and the T-REX software platform by combining the most sustainable elements of finance with modern SaaS technology. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Influence What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn How many hours of sleep do you get?— Between 6 and 7.5 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wished that I knew that not everything was of the utmost consequence for my entire life”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:24 – Nathan introduces Benjamin to the show 02:55 – T-REX is a fintech company that makes complex capital markets more liquid by making them more transparent and efficient 04:04 – T-REX provides a familiar framework where their clients can slice and dice everything 04:15 – “We’re just making the risks more transparent

Pablo Estevez. He’s a Mexican entrepreneur who co-founded HolaGus, an artificial intelligence company that focuses on automating customer service and sales via chat for Spanish speaking countries. Since founding his company, he has been distinguished for receiving awards like The Diamond Winner by MassChallenge. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – A lot Favorite online tool? — N/A How many hours of sleep do you get?— Usually 7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That this is going to be really, really hard, I was going to work a lot of hours”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:14 – Nathan introduces Pablo to the show 02:00 – HolaGus develops AI to automate customer service and sales via any chat channel 02:11 – HolaGus charges businesses for every assisted conversation 02:39 – HolaGus’s standard fee is 1-2 Mexican pesos 02:47 – HolaGus has a pay-as-you-go model 03:20 – HolaGus is a B2C business and is similar to GoB

Peter Aronson. He’s an award-winning journalist who’s has been featured on NPR and Marketplace. He’s also been a vice president in the corporate world. Now, his startup helps Mexico transform that notorious Mexican tap water into perfectly drinkable clean-tasting purified water. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Founder’s Dilemma What CEO do you follow? – N/A Favorite online tool? — HubSpot CRM Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Peter wished he took business courses and knew about the GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:12 – Nathan introduces Peter to the show 01:33 – People aren’t supposed to drink the water in Mexico 01:41 – Mexico became the No. 1 consumer per capita in the world 02:08 – 70% of the consumed bottled water in Mexico is 5-gallon jug 02:21 – An average Mexican family is spending more for their water than on their broadband or landline 02:48 – Peter’s company is Biluu 03:07 – Peter had

Alex Mehr. He’s the founder of Zoosk, which filed to go public in 2014. His current venture is MentorBox, a unique and new self-help concept. Before that, he was an aerospace scientist at NASA. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Trello Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I try at least 8 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “To take more risks”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:10 – Nathan introduces Alex to the show 01:43 – Zoosk announced to go public for $200M 02:24 – Zoosk decided to stay independent, so they didn’t pursue going public 02:44 – When you go public, you make projections about the growth rate and what you want to do financially 03:05 – The expectations from the public market for tech companies who go public are different than those who do not 03:14 – Alex and the team didn’t want the company to push hard for a quarter by quarter growth 03::50 – Zoosk was launched

Sean Ellis. He’s the founder and CEO of GrowthHackers.com, he coined the term “growth hacking” in 2010 after using it to ignite growth for Dropbox, Eventbrite, LogMeIn and Lookout. He also founded and sold customer insights company Qualaroo, growing it to millions of dollars in recurring revenue. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Peep Laja Favorite online tool? — The Calm App Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wished my 20-year old self knew things are going to be pretty good”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:25 – Nathan introduces Sean to the show 02:03 – Sean speaks at The Capital Factory in Austin, Texas 02:07 – Sean’s talk was about viral coefficients and why it’s important to decrease the time of the original share to really drive growth 02:50 – If you don’t have a lot value at the foundation of the growth, it’s hard to make your business sustainable 02:56 – Sean tries

Kenny Ewan. He is in charge of the overall strategic direction for WeFarm where he oversees the day-to-day activities of the business. After graduating, he spent 7 years in Peru running an international NGO, specializing in work with indigenous communities. Kenny played the lead role in developing WeFarm, before launching it as a startup in 2015. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Chaos Monkeys What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I’m happy to let him make mistakes”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:18 – Nathan introduces Kenny to the show 01:49 – WeFarm is a growth focus model 02:29 – WeFarm offers their services to farmers 02:37 – WeFarm leads farmers to the sellers and WeFarm will take a small transaction commission 03:00 – WeFarm offers information in the space 03:08 – A farmer in Kenya who has no internet access can ask WeFarm a question, through SMS, for free 03:30 – 10

Tyler Tate. He’s the CEO of Crema.co, the coffee market place. Previously, he co-founded TwigKit, which is an enterprise search software and was the first design lead at Nutshell, which is a SaaS CRM platform. In each case, he used product strategy and design thinking to play its part in envisioning, designing and building products from the ground up. He’s also co-authored the book called Designing the Search Experience which Morgan Kaufmann published in 2013. He’s spoken at numerous conferences. While at TwigKit, he consulted for organizations such as The Financial Times, Thomson-Reuters, Qualcomm, Vodafone, ITV, Rolls-Royce, BASF and Gemalto, helping them design search-driven applications. He’s originally from Alabama, went to University of Kentucky, and spent 7 years in UK. He’s also lived in Seattle and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Tyler prefers reading blogs at the moment What CEO do you follow? – Michael Dubin Favorite online tool? — Trello Do you get 8

Jon Ferrara. He’s in CRM—a relationship management entrepreneur and noted speaker about social media’s effects on sales marketing. He’s reimagined the CRM by building a simply smarter social sales and marketing platform. His most recent venture is called Nimble.com. It’s the first CRM that works for you by building the updated contact data for you and then works with you everywhere you work. He’s best known as the co-founder of GoldMine Software, one of the early pioneers in the Salesforce automation and customer relationship management in software categories for SMBs. He’s recently been recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Social CEOs and Top 10 Social Sales people in the world. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich What CEO do you follow? –  Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — Buffer Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — 7-8 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Not to sweat shit so much”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:17 – Nathan introduces Jon to the sho

Ben Cantey. He’s a San Francisco entrepreneur and has a passion about solving problems and changing lives through technology. He teaches entrepreneurship and lean methodology at universities and high schools on his free time. He’s launching some bad-ass technology with a handful of math geniuses in a parking space. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Rough Riders What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk Favorite online tool? — Yesware Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 8 1/2 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Execute faster”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:18 – Nathan introduces Ben to the show 01:51 – Park Evergreen revolutionizes the way parking is sold and managed at airports 01:55 – Airports currently use a whole stack of services, suppliers and contractors that are outdated 02:15 – Park Evergreen uses geolocation technology to bring physical parking online 02:25 – Travelers can find a reserve pay per parking through Park Evergreen’s app 02:35 – Park Evergreen is so

Jim Sweeney. He’s the CEO and one of the founders of Clarify Medical. He began his entrepreneurial journey at Sharp Hospital where he worked full-time delivering hospital supplies while still in high school. He then spent 3 years in the US Army Medical Corps where he ran a remote, medical service dispensary serving 2500 families in Germany. He received a degree in business from San Diego State University. James has founded 12 medical companies including Caremark, Caps, Corum, Bridge Medical, CardioNet and co-founded Owned Outcomes. He’s also led a successful leveraged buyout or LBO with McGaw Labs which he took public and is now owned by BBraun. His financing history includes raising venture capital and expansion capital for his ideas leading to over $25B in exit values of companies he founded. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? –  David Hale Favorite online tool? — N/A Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Between 4-6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would

Bill Brice. He’s currently the CEO of AlphaTrust Corporation which he launched in 1998, to capitalize on the sustained long-term shift from paper-based document businesses to fully electronic document processes. Bill is considered as one of the industry’s pioneers and he’s a leading authority of electronic signatures, especially around generating real economic impact and brand enhancement. He served as chairman of the board for the Electronic Signature and Records Association and is currently a member of the board of directors. Before his electronic signatures company, he started his entrepreneurial career, when in college, by co-founding Brice Foods and is chairman and CEO. He grew the company into a global enterprise best known for its chain of frozen yogurt stores. The company grew into 1500 franchise locations and 43 countries with manufacturing operations on 4 different continents. For his work, he was awarded as The Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the International Franchise Association, which is th

Tobyn Sowden. He’s the CEO of Redbrick, the second fastest growing software company in Canada and the birthplace of a product called Shift. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – How to Win Friends and Influence People What CEO do you follow? –  N/A Favorite online tool? — InVision Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I would tell myself technical, all the way”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:39 – Nathan introduces Tobyn to the show 02:00 – Profit Guide named Redbrick as the second fastest software company in Canada, by measuring revenue growth 02:25 – Profit Guide measured a whole 5 year period 02:30 – Redbrick had $200K revenue in 2010 and $10-20M in 2015 03:00 – Redbrick was launched in 2010 03:15 – Redbrick started from an app distribution perspective 03:38 – Redbrick has developed their own tools to track 04:20 – Redbrick’s main software is Deskmetrics, which is integrated into Shift 04:31 – Deskmetrics currently has 500K active users

Patrick McGinnis. He’s the author of The 10% Entrepreneur which focuses on living your startup dream without leaving your day job, which was just published by Penguin Portfolio. He’s also credited for coining up with the term “fear of missing out”. He’s a graduate of Harvard business school and is living in New York City. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup What CEO do you follow? –  Sheryl Sandberg Favorite online tool? — Quip Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6-12 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Patrick wished he had more confidence in his abilities and more open to trying new things   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:30 – Nathan introduces Patrick to the show 02:10 – Patrick is a Wall Street refugee 02:21 – Patrick has his own advisory firm 02:29 – Patrick built up his portfolio of over 20 investments 03:04 – Patrick worked with his friend in Real Influence for free 03:14 – They sold $300K-$400K 03:19 – The business didn’t push through and Patrick sold

Clate Mask and he has been educating and inspiring entrepreneurs for over a decade. He’s recognized by the small business community as a truly visionary leader. His passion for small business success stems from his personal experience, taking Infusionsoft from a struggling startup to an 8-time Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 winner. As CEO, he’s leading Infusionsoft on its mission to create and dominate the market of sales and marketing software for small businesses. Under Clate’s leadership, the company has landed 4 rounds of venture capital including a $55M series D led by Bain, with contributions from prior investors including Signal Peak Ventures and Goldman Sachs. He’s also named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends, and one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2013 by Goldman Sachs. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm and The Advantage What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — Thumbtack Do you get

Amarpreet Kalkat. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Frrole, an AI (artificial intelligence) startup that is redefining consumer intelligence. He loves building things, be it product, revenue streams, teams or organizations.  Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Travis Kalanick Favorite online tool? — Klout Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Amarpreet would tell himself to focus and prioritize   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:22 – Nathan introduces Amarpreet to the show 01:50 – Frrole provides consumer intelligence 01:53 – Frrole relies on public data to build insights about the consumers 02:07 – Frrole works with companies’ marketing teams 02:35 – eBay and Flipcut are some of Frrole’s customers 02:44 – It is crucial for marketing teams to understand their customers 02:57 – Frrole works with eBay’s shipping insides team 03:02 – eBay wants to understand their customer’s shipping experien

Amit Shanbhag. He bootstrapped RocketReach from 0 to over 300K registered users in its first year. RocketReach and RocketReach API are trusted by some of the largest companies on the planet like Apple, Google, Chase and Morgan Stanley—just to name a few. He has more than a dozen patents and has started his professional life writing code for geostationary satellites. He’s also a judge for the MIT $100K competition and hopes to invest more time and money back into the startup ecosystem. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – N/A What CEO do you follow? – Sundar Pichai Favorite online tool? — Google Search Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— 4-5 If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – Amit would tell the young ones to take risks, give everything you’re doing a good shot, and that worrying isn’t productive   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:28 – Nathan introduces Amit to the show 02:08 – Amit was in Episode 465 and just passed 100K paying customers 03:03 – RocketReach has 300K signup users 03:31

David Tavor. He has more than 20 years of experience as a general manager and founder of Biotech Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Company. He served as a fighter pilot and a commander in the Israeli Air Force and retired with the rank of a colonel. Mr. Tavor holds an MA degree in political science and national defense studies and MBA studies. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Born to Life What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs Favorite online tool? — David’s common sense Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— About 3 or 4 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Lean on yourself”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:15 – Nathan introduces David to the show 02:04 – ParaSonic develops an ultra-sonic bomb that destroys lice and lice eggs 03:39 – ParaSonic developed a comb that treats lice in just one stroke of the comb 03:50 – The clinical trial was just completed and it was a success 04:52 – ParaSonic started in 2014 05:08 – The company was established within a technological incubator 05:1

Alessio Alionco. He’s the founder and CEO of Pipefy, which is part of 500 Startups. He’s a passionate product manager. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup What CEO do you follow? – Jason Lemkin Favorite online tool? — Yesware and Salesforce Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Alessio would tell himself to be aggressive with his goals   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:56 – Nathan introduces Alessio to the show 02:12 – Pipefy is a workflow cooperation software 02:21 – Alessio got Pipefy’s idea from his previous company 02:36 – Alessio uses a CRM to manage Pipefy 02:45 – Pipefy has a dozen of processes 03:12 – “We coordinate people’s work” 03:36 – Pipefy provides guidelines for a smooth, business process 03:48 – Pipefy is more of a people coordination solution and Zapier is similar to IFTTT 04:00 – Pipefy charges per user, per month 04:10 – Average customer fee is $200/month 04:20 – Pipefy started at the end of 2014 04:26 –